Felicitations Fragaria!

The Folks over at Mighty Foods have declared it!

This Here’s Strawberry Season!

It is the peak of strawberry season, and we’re on the lookout for the most amazing strawberry recipes. We’ve rounded up a few below for you to enjoy. Feel free to add any others you are particularly fond of in the comment section – we like to highlight recipes that are using whole grains, whole grain flours, whole ingredients, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, minimally refined sweeteners, and the like – so keep that in mind if you post (or at the very least recommend substitutions).

Strawberries. As if their fragrant, juicy sweetness wasn’t reason enough to enjoy these heart-shaped gems, strawberries are packed with potent phyto-nutrients and health-promoting antioxidants. When you are buying strawberries be on vigilant mold alert. Be sure to peek in the bottom of the basket, or hold berry baskets up high and look underneath – a single moldy berry seems to be contagious to the whole lot. Also, keep in mind, strawberries are one of the crops where pesticide residue is most likely to be found. Buy organic berries, or berries that have been grown without pesticides. Here are Mighty Food’s Seasonal Spotlight-Recipe Round-up!

Interesting Facts about Strawberries:

• Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

• The average strawberry has 200 seeds!

• In actuality strawberry is not a fruit but only an enlarged receptacle of the flower of the plant in which strawberries grow.

• In the 13th century, strawberry was known more for its medicinal value than as a delicious fruit to be consumed. Strawberries were widely cultivated in ancient Rome to be used in various medicines prepared by them to treat diseases like skin discoloration and digestive disorders. Belgium even maintains an exclusive strawberry museum to enlighten people more about the use and medicinal value of this fruit that belongs to the rose family

• Studies show that one serving of eight medium sized strawberries is capable of providing the body 140% of the U.S recommended daily allowance of vitamin C required for human body. This amount of vitamin C contained in one serving of eight strawberries is more than the vitamin C in an orange, a fruit known for its high level of vitamin C contents.

• In France, Strawberries were thought to be an aphrodisiac. A soup made of strawberries, thinned sour cream, borage, & powered sugar was served to newlyweds.